


Picking Up The Pieces

by HopeStoryteller



Series: stay close (move fast) [5]
Category: Zombies Run!
Genre: Archie: you should talk to him!, Canonical Character Death, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Female Runner Five, Five: haha that's funny, Mutual Pining, Pining, Post S2M18, Selectively Mute Runner Five, aka every time my zoms run feels become too much I write a fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-11
Updated: 2020-04-11
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:22:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23589853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HopeStoryteller/pseuds/HopeStoryteller
Summary: Five should have known better than to get attached. She should have given up much sooner. Now... now it just hits her so, so much harder. She's not the only one.It maybe doesn't help that she was the one person to A) pick up on the fact that maybe her feelings towards Sam were more than platonic and B) urge her to act on them.
Relationships: Archie Jensen/Jamie Skeet, Runner Five & Archie Jensen, Runner Five/Sam Yao
Series: stay close (move fast) [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1698457
Comments: 7
Kudos: 20





	Picking Up The Pieces

Getting attached, during the zombie apocalypse, is a fucking stupid idea to begin with. Which is part of why Five steadfastly refuses to tell Sam how she really feels about him. They’re friends, sure, and good ones at that. And that’s the way it’s going to stay.

But maybe, for a few moments, she can pretend there’s something more there, that it’s not better off for both of them if things stay strictly platonic. Because she’s just stumbled into the comms shack, expecting some kind of debrief, but instead it’s just Sam. It’s just Sam, who’s curled up in his chair and sobbing into his arms.

She doesn’t say anything. Just wraps her arms around him and lets her own tears finally fall. It had been shock, at first. Then horror. Then Jamie had charged in anyway, even though they both knew what he’d find. And between that and everything else, she hadn’t really cried.

Not until now.

She’d wasted valuable ammo shooting at the chopper. She’s going to be reprimanded for that sooner or later, but in the moment… how could she not? Archie had been… well, no one gave her enough credit. But she was always fun to run joint missions with, always up for a laugh or a quick game of _spot-the-alphabet-on-signs_.

And she’s _gone_. Not because of zombies. Because of _Van Ark._ She had people. Jamie, who hadn’t spoken a word since he came in with her, or looked anyone in the eye. Who’d disappeared nearly as soon as they were through the gates.

“Hey, Five,” Sam says. His voice cracks. “I— _god_. The bloody zombie apocalypse. It’s the _bloody zombie apocalypse_. And we lose one of our best not from zombies, but from—“

He hiccups. Reaches a hand up to hold Five’s. “Guess you’re probably thinking _oh, Sam, you shouldn’t be so broken up about this, it’s not like she was your girlfriend, you made fun of her more often than not!_ And you’d… be right. M’sorry. I shouldn’t… I just thought— _god_.”

Five’s eyes narrow. She withdraws her hand, spins his chair around to face her, and crosses her arms. Raises an eyebrow, even as the tears threaten to spill over again.

“I—right. You were there. I— _god_ I’m so sorry, she was your friend and she was Jamie’s girlfriend and she shouldn’t be... we lose people all the time. Particularly runners. I should be used to this.”

The eyebrow raises further as Five clears off some of the desk and takes a seat on it.

“Yeah, we both know I’m not. And I guess you’re not either.”

Five shakes her head, closes her eyes, and sighs. Her eyes jolt open when Sam’s hand slides neatly into hers again. It’s warm, and comforting, even as her mind tries to yell at her to stop, this is dangerous for both of them, stop stop _stop-_

Archie had. Encouraged her to do something. Also actually picked _up_ on the way she supposedly lit up whenever Sam came on comms, although none of the other runners had ever said anything so maybe it wasn’t quite as obvious as Archie made it out to be. She would have wanted her to do something.

So, for Archie’s sake. She doesn’t move, doesn’t jerk back her hand like she knows damn well she should.

“Do you mind just… staying? For a bit? I know you’re… busy and all that. Places to be, reports to give. But if it’s not too much trouble…”

Five gives his hand a gentle squeeze. She scoots a bit closer despite herself. Close enough that, when he starts to nod off, he starts leaning a lot less on the chair and a lot more on her leg. It… helps. Having him here. And maybe it helps him too.

But eventually, she can’t steal any more time. So she blinks away the tears that are choosing now to come back and gently, oh-so-gently, transfers his head back onto the chairback. A blanket’s not hard to find, and once it’s draped over him she hesitates.

She chickens out. She tucks a stray strand of hair behind his ear, mouths the words she’ll never say out loud, and leaves. Later, she’ll come back and make sure he remembers to eat and gets to his actual bunk, but for now…

For now, she’ll just let him rest. Let him forget, at least for a little while, what just happened. At least one of them can.

**Author's Note:**

> RIP Archie, you were awesome. Say hi to Mildred Van de Graaf for me. Your boyfriend and I and anyone else we can scrounge up to help are going to avenge you by tearing Van Ark to bloody shreds.
> 
> I'm gonna go sleep now. And cry. At least Sam's alright. For now. I don't trust anybody to not die anymore, but this game can and _will_ break me entirely if they kill off Sam. Please don't kill my sad radio man. :<


End file.
